Is Hurricane Sandy Linked to Climate Change?

Many people are questioning the links between Hurricane Sandy and climate change. Although ignored in all three presidential debates, Sandy may be an indicator that climate change should be on the minds of not just presidential candidates, but all citizens of the global world.

Hurricane Sandy, the tropical cyclone that hit the United States in late October 2012, was the largest Atlantic hurricane in diameter on record. For the Mid Atlantic and Northeast US, the damages caused by Sandy reached over $20 billion - making this hurricane the more expensive hurricane in history.

Many scientists claim that although no single weather event can prove that climate change and global warming are occurring, the known effects may have intensified the storm. There are several conditions caused by climate change that have been studied.

Global warming causes more moisture to be in the air. According to a 2011 article published in the journal Climate Research, increased global heating leads to greater amounts of moisture in the air through evapotranspiration and the water holding capacity of air increases by about 7 percent per 1°C warming. More moisture + a higher water holding capacity = more water vapor in the atmosphere. Storms supplied with more moisture thus produce more intense precipitation events, which is a common source of damage from hurricanes.

According to a 2012 publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, both sea level and temperature have been steadily rising since 1955. Elevated sea levels (from melting ice) can lead to more intense storm surges, and hot oceans can lead to more intense hurricanes because warm water fuels storms - relatively cooler air condenses vapor rising from water below and the heat released from the condensation gives the hurricane energy. According to the 2012 study, these changes can only be explained by the increase in atmospheric green house gases.

The world - including the presidential candidates - cannot ignore this issue for much longer. Scientists predict that the annual number of increasingly intense hurricanes will increase twofold over the next 100 years. Thanks to Sandy, climate change is starting to get some recognition. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York City said in statements that “there has been a series of extreme weather incidents. That is not a political statement. That is a factual statement. Anyone who says there’s not a dramatic change in weather patterns, I think is denying reality.” 

So even if the hurricane onset was normal, these factors may have led to a stronger, longer storm than might have been if these conditions were absent. If true, then climate change may be setting up a world that is more hospitable to the generation of extreme weather events like hurricanes.